Should I? How do I start?

I would like to go vegetarian (I don't think I'm ready for full-on vegan), but there's a big problem... I REALLY love the taste of meat.

How do I start? Should I try cold turkey, or easing into it? How do I make sure not to malnourish myself?

Most importantly,though... how do I tell my family?

My dad tried going vegan (the rest of my family shamed him out of it), so he might support me. But the rest of my family relies a lot on meat; my little sister (she has problems getting enough iron) actually has a "prescription" from one of her doctors for steak.

Re: Should I? How do I start?

When I went vegan, I first cut out red meat, then white meat, then everything else. I also did my own grocery shopping because I was trying to limit any animal products (I eventually went vegan). I think there's 2 things you need to make sure you're getting, iron and B-12. With iron, you can either plan meals and make sure you are getting enough throughout the day or you can take a supplement (I know whole foods has a vegan iron supplement, and they're probably available online). For B-12 you can take a supplement or eat nutritional yeast. Nutritional yeast are flakes (I would get mine at Central Market, about $3 for 1/2cup or so), personally I would just mix in a teaspoon or two into my oatmeal in the morning, and I couldn't taste it.

As for telling your family, I would just tell them that you want to try it. Tell them that you understand that your health is important and that you will only continue to do it if you feel healthy with it (my family is a bunch of meat-eating health nuts, so this was a concern for them). Also, make sure that you have a solid answer if they ask you why, I try not to go into too much detail about the cruelty of the animal-farming business, but instead say something along the lines of caring for animals and not feeling like it's your right to take a life, just for food.

Basically, do as much research as you can ahead of time, and prepare answers to all the questions you'll get asked. And remember, what they think of your decision isn't important, you're doing what's right for you and you feel good doing it. That's what matters. (plus you get to save some cute cows)

Re: Should I? How do I start?

I've been experimenting with a semi-vegan diet for the last 2 1/2 months. (When I say "experimenting" and "semi-vegan", I mean that I'm trying to eliminate as many animal products from my diet as I can while still maintaining my nutritional requirements, my health, and my wallet size.) I found this great website that's pro-vegan that has a ton of info, I'm sure lots of it would be useful for a vegetarian diet as well: http://www.veganhealth.org/ Also, the Mayo Clinic has an article on staying healthy on a vegan/vegetarian diet: http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-li...-20046446?pg=2
As for the question of explaining your choice to your family and friends, I myself am having a difficult time fully explaining my decisions to my own family. Right now, I've been kind of using the most practical reason that I know they will accept the easiest: I'm a type 1 diabetic, and a vegan diet has been AMAZING at helping me lower and stabilize my blood sugar levels. While this is true, it's only one of the reasons that I've chosen the diet. The other reasons concerning the health of the environment, respect for the animals, farmers, and workers that provide us with our food, and the political aspects of consuming lots of animal products, are every bit as important to me, but I feel almost embarrassed trying to explain that to people...

Re: Should I? How do I start?

I don't eat red meat or pork more than once a month, just because I worked at an Indian resturaunt for a long time and only ate Indian food. After that beef upset my stomach. I use ground turkey in place of ground beef, and chicken for everything else. First time I did the switch on Andrew he didn't notice. So +1 to peachy its super easy to cut out red meats, you can go from there easing on to less meat and smaller portions until there's none left in your diet.
make sure to keep track of your vitamin and mineral intakes, and make sure to let your doctor know. He/she can have blood work done to make sure you're balanced

Re: Should I? How do I start?

You can slowly edge things out! Please remember to get amino acids, etc. You can use cronometer to help you reach those daily needs! Also, when you are going vegetarian, you want to be eating as much as you want, you wouldn't be worrying about(alt all) about meat! USually, if you are craving meat, you aren't eating all those sweet and amazing fruits, veggies, eggs, dairy! There are also imitations if thats your forte

Re: Should I? How do I start?

First off, of course you should! Before you start though I think it would REALLY help if you do some research on different things like how animals are treated and such and this will help with not missing the taste of meat.
You can slowly cut out the meat and of course try meat alternatives.

I think you'll find cutting out meat to be a lot easier than you thought, and in terms of telling your family, I bet your dad will be very supportive.
But make sure you do your research so when your family says 'oh it's not healthy because you can't get protein' you can easily respond with 'actually it's found in many different things'